Content warning: This story refers to a viral, violent video of a shooting. We will not link directly to the footage.
This story was first published on September 10.
Far-right political activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was 31.
The shooting occurred as Kirk was speaking in front of a crowd at the Utah university, a kickoff event for Turning Point’s “American Comeback” national tour that had received nearly 1,000 petition signatures calling for it to be canceled, reports the Associated Press. According to CNN, Kirk was asked about the statistics of transgender people linked to mass shootings, an active — and misleading — talking point on the right; Kirk was answering the question when he was fatally shot.
A video circulated on social media and verified by the Associated Press shows Kirk being shot while mid answer. Officials confirmed soon after that Kirk had been shot, and nearly two hours later, President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that Kirk had died. Overnight, several right-wing figures called for violence and “war” against the left as vengeance for Kirk’s death, reported WIRED.
As of 10:45 AM ET on September 11, the shooter has still not been identified or found, and the investigation is still underway, according to the New York Times. The shooter's motives and political affiliation are similarly unknown. Utah Valley University closed its campus, cancelled classes, and instructed students to “secure in place” until they can safely be escorted off campus as the investigation continues.
Who was Charlie Kirk?
A Trump ally, Kirk was popular among the far-right, known for rallying young people around conservative ideas and around the President. Kirk often travelled to college campuses, where he would debate with students on popular right-wing talking points. He is often credited with rallying young conservatives in a new wave of political activism. During these appearances, Kirk frequently spoke out against abortion and reproductive rights, espoused anti-trans ideology, spread COVID-19 misinformation, among other controversial and, often, prejudiced opinions. Kirk was gifted at digital attention-grabbing throughout his career as a right-wing commentator; in 2024, prior to another “debate” campus tour, his appearance on the video platform Jubilee debating young liberals went viral.
Kirk has been outspoken against gun control legislation, frequently defending access to guns during debates and speaking engagements. In a Turning Point speech last year, Kirk called shooting deaths as a result of gun access the “cost to liberty,” comparing gun deaths to the risk of driving and auto accidents. He made similar comments in 2023, calling gun deaths “worth” it in exchange for Second Amendment rights shortly after a mass shooting killed three children and three adults at the Christian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee. Around the same time that Kirk was shot, a shooting at a Colorado school was also unfolding. According to the Denver Post, two teens were injured, with one still in critical condition, and the teenage shooter dead after turning the gun on himself, as of the morning after the shooting.
Kirk started Turning Point USA — which, on its website, claims to help supporters on college campuses “take up arms in the culture war” against “the Left” — in 2012, when he was 18.
What Is Turning Point USA?
Turning Point USA, often shortened to TPUSA, operates as a series of chapters on university campuses, helmed by founder Kirk until his death. The group aims to “build the most organized, active, and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country,” its website says.
Though it initially failed to gain traction, reports the Associated Press, “Kirk’s zeal for confronting liberals in academia eventually won over an influential set of conservative financiers [for the group].” According to its website, the organization is represented on more than 3,500 college campuses. In 2024, the group planned to spend $100 million on “get out the vote” efforts in coordination with the Trump campaign. As of September 10, navigating to Turning Point USA’s website brings you to a pop-up of a smiling Kirk advertising a “47” hat, in homage to President Trump, in exchange for any donation to the organization.
The organization has long maintained a “Professor Watchlist” to allegedly “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom.” In 2023, an Arizona State University professor on TPUSA’s “Watchlist” was physically attacked by someone associated with Turning Point USA. In 2017, TPUSA was the subject of an investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education over allegations they had violated their 501(c)3 status by funneling money to student government candidates on campuses across the country.
Kirk’s controversies
In the wake of his death, several clips of Kirk making controversial, offensive or inaccurate statements on subjects ranging from abortion to gun control circulated on social media. In one, Kirk argues that abortion is “worse than the Holocaust;” in another, he is asked if a photo of a fetus is a “human being” and responds affirmatively — immediately revealed to be a dolphin fetus. He also spoke against abortion even in cases of rape.
Particular attention has been paid to Kirk’s comments on gun control because of his cause of death. “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said in 2023. Kirk advocated for guns in schools to prevent school shootings, saying, “If our money and our sporting events and our airplanes have armed guards, why don’t our children?”
In January 2025, Media Matters collected several examples of Kirk's controversies in the last few years, from Kirk using anti-trans slurs and calling for gender-affirming care providers to receive a “Nuremberg-style trial”; to promoting the white supremacist “Great Replacement Theory”; to, in 2023, calling for President Joe Biden to face the death penalty for “crimes against America.” Kirk also made antisemitic statements in relation to the Great Replacement Theory, as reported by the New York Times.
In addition to anti-immigrant statements, Kirk also decried the 1965 Civil Rights Act. During a 2023 Turning Point USA conference, Kirk called it a “mistake.” "I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I've thought about it," Kirk said. "We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the 1960s." In the same speech, Kirk called Martin Luther King Jr. “awful” and “not a good person.”
In 2024, Kirk called the notion of climate change being an existential threat to humanity “complete gibberish, nonsense and balderdash.”
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